Google just bet €13 billion on Finland, and nuclear power is the reason why

Google just made its biggest single bet in Europe, and most of the money is going towards keeping the lights on for AI, not building anything flashy.

The company is investing at least €13 billion in Finland over the next two years, expanding its existing data centre in Hamina and building three new sites in Kajaani, Vaala and Muhos. It ranks among the largest industrial investments in Finnish history, which is a big claim for a country not short on heavy industry.

The nuclear detail is the one worth sitting with. Google has signed a 22 year power purchase agreement with Fortum, covering up to half the output of Finland's Loviisa nuclear plant. It is the first deal of its kind in Europe, and it is expected to unlock around €1 billion in investment needed to keep that plant running for decades longer than it otherwise would have.

Google is also locking in new onshore wind deals with Valorem and Suomen Hyötytuuli, bringing its total contracted wind capacity in Finland to 629 megawatts. Between the wind and the nuclear, this is a company trying to secure power at a scale most governments would call ambitious.

The numbers on the economic side are just as large. Google estimates the first construction phase will add an average of €3.6 billion a year to Finland's GDP through 2027 and 2028, and expects the four data centres to eventually support around 7,000 jobs directly and indirectly.

Strip away the AI headlines and this is really an energy story. Training and running large AI models takes an enormous, steady amount of power, and the companies building that infrastructure are now doing deals that used to be reserved for national energy strategies. Nuclear power just became a normal line item in a tech company's AI budget, and that says a lot about where this industry is actually headed.